1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broadcast signal processing apparatus, and a channel tuning method, and more particularly, to a broadcast signal processing apparatus, and a channel tuning method, which can reduce a channel tuning time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP) is the U.S. cable broadcasting standard. Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and API implementations are called an OCAP middleware. Here, the APIs and API implementations are used to enable standard Java applications operating in the OCAP to control a host platform (for example, a digital television (DTV), a Set-Top Box, etc.) which observes the OCAP. In order for an application to perform channel tuning in this structure, the OCAP middleware receives a channel tuning key signal and hands over the received channel tuning key signal to the application, and the application requests for channel tuning to the OCAP middleware again.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart view schematically showing a channel tuning method in a related art broadcast signal processing apparatus equipped with OCAP middleware.
Referring to FIG. 1, if a user presses a channel tuning key using a remote controller 101 in a related art broadcast signal processing apparatus (for example, a DTV), a host platform 110 receives a channel tuning key signal. The host platform 110 having received the channel tuning key signal transfers the channel tuning key signal to OCAP middleware 120. The OCAP middleware 120 transfers the channel tuning key signal to an application program (for example, Java Application) 130. The application program 130 searches for channel information about a channel to be tuned using an inner channel map based on the received channel tuning key signal. The application program 130 then transfers the searched channel information about the channel to be tuned to the OCAP middleware 120 through a channel tuning function, which is called a select function in the OCAP standard, and requests for channel tuning. The OCAP middleware 120 having received a channel tuning request requests the host platform 110 to start the channel tuning.
According to the channel tuning method in the related art broadcast signal processing apparatus described above, channel tuning is not directly performed in the host platform 110. Rather, when the channel tuning key is input, the channel tuning key signal is transferred to the OCAP middleware 120 and the OCAP middleware 120 transfers the channel tuning key signal to the application program 130. The application program 130 then finds a service (channel) to be tuned based on the received channel tuning key signal and calls a channel tuning function to the OCAP middleware 120 to request channel tuning. The OCAP middleware 120 requests the host platform 110 to tune a channel desired by the application program 130. Accordingly, the host platform 110 starts a channel tuning operation.
As opposed to the existent analog mode TV, the method described above describes a DTV equipped with the OCAP middleware performs second through sixth steps (steps 2-6) until channel tuning actually starts. As a result, the related art DTV consumes time when performing second through sixth steps (steps 2-6), causing the channel tuning rate to decrease.